Since I started working here in March, every month of diving at Atmosphere has been awesome, not only because of the guests and staff but also because of the amazing critters. That being said, for me personally, October has been exceptional.
We have had many unique sightings this month and many guests have finally seen a desired critter for the first time, including the elusive Harlequin Shrimp! We are still seeing frogfish at a lot of the dive sites, so I’m definitely happy, and one of my favorite Giant Frogfish reappeared and it seems to have changed color from purple to green! We even had another Sargassum fish wash up on our beach, except this time it was hiding inside of a jackfruit! So what else have we seen this month?
O stands for October, but it also stands for Octopus! Just this month we have had consistent sightings of the Blue-ringed Octopus (on the house reef!), Wonderpus, Mototi Octopus, Mimic Octopus, and Day Octopus. We’ve also seen a few other tiny octopus that I am still trying to identify! October seems to be Flamboyant Cuttlefish month as well. We are seeing them at around half of the dive sites here in Dauin, including a few our house reef. Our record day this month was 13 Flamboyants, eight on the first dive followed by five on the next. We’ve even found one that was only 2cm long, as well as many baby Flamboyants still in their eggs.
For those who enjoy Apo Island, October seems to be turtle month! We are seeing an average of around ten sea turtles per day trip, with many divers seeing more than ten on one dive! Rock Point West, my favorite dive site at the island, is nicknamed turtle city, or turtle airport because of all the turtles swimming to and from the surface for air at the same time. It is not uncommon for our divers to see four, five, or six turtles at the same time, all taking naps on the comfortable soft coral! If you have time, come on over to Atmosphere and join us on an octopus hunt or a day trip to Apo for amazing diving or snorkeling!
Your marine biologist /Daniel
